


One Hundred and One

by Anonymous



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Ancient Egypt, Gen, Kul Elna, Mild Blood, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:35:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23361811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Serenity gets her sight back - in a different time and place, with a different name, and with a very different brother. And also with Bakura.
Relationships: Thief King Bakura & Serenity Wheeler
Kudos: 1
Collections: anonymous





	One Hundred and One

**Author's Note:**

> A completed part of an incomplete "Five Things" story based around the theme of Serenity seeing again.
> 
> Serenity is "Serethor" here. According to Wikipedia, Serethor is an ancient Egyptian name - probably a queen. Mostly I picked it for starting the same way "Serenity" does and to sneak a bit of a Thief Queen feeling in there. (She doesn't have the ego to go all-in with a title like that, so an allusion will have to do.)

* * *

  
"Stop moving. You know this is necessary." Bakura tightened his grip on Serethor's neck. "Hold still and it'll be over soon."

He waited a moment and was glad to feel her body stop its instinctive struggles. She was trembling, but he had enough practise with knives to handle that small motion, even for delicate work like this.

"Good girl," he said, steadying his knife hand. He cut as quickly as he could.

**

It had been hours since the deed was done; night had seeped away to reveal pale blue skies. Finally Serethor moved from her pained crouch, reaching out with one, searching hand for the cup of water placed near her.

The other hand was still over the socket of the eye he'd cut out.

Bakura leaned against the wall of the hut they'd cleaned out for this task, watching Serethor take tiny sips and saw how her hand shook, making water spill down her chin. She was ... a peaceful one. She didn't like to fight and wouldn't be good at it anyway, and so had never learnt to stand pain. Often, he had wished that she wasn't so weak, but he hated to think that she was in pain anyway.

He let her drink her fill before he asked. "Did it work?"

" _Hurts_..."

Bakura got up from the wall to crouch beside her. He put one hand on Serethor's head, stroking her hair. "I know. But did it work?"

"I don't know." Her voice was timorous as a newborn bird's.

"Look at me. Hiding won't do any good." Bakura took hold of the wrist of the hand she held over her eyes, his fingers sticking in the dried blood, and pried the hand away from Serethor's face. Tiny sounds choked out of her and she kept her face down-turned. "Look up!"

Serethor finally did, shuddering at the strength the decision took from her. Her face was a crumpled mess of desperation and pain ... then her expression changed to one of painful joy. She sobbed, "Brother!"

Bakura flinched away from her. "Serethor, calm down! I'm not your brother!" he said, thinking, _Serethor, please, not again. Don't go mad again. Not when I've given you a gift like_ that _._

It had taken her a long time to stop confusing him with her brother. When they were children, they'd slept close together, and Serethor had often awakened on quiet mornings and called him by her brother's name. Sometimes he'd thought that he should let her, but he couldn't forget that his sisters were dead, not even for the only person he had left. Every time he'd said that he was not her brother, Serethor had wailed like a dying child - and now, all she saw was her favourite dream.

Bakura stared at her in dread. Serethor's face was a bright contrast, and she barely seemed to see him at all as she stared fiercely into the air.

"I know you're not, Bakura!" she cried. "But my brother's right there!" She pointed behind him, and Bakura turned his head to look.

Behind him the air shimmered as if in a heat haze. He knew a ghost was there, its form unclear because of the sunlight spilling through the broken roof of the hut. Was that what Serethor saw? But if she saw it clearly enough to recognise...

"Mother!" Serethor jumped to her feet, darting glances around the room. "They don't look all melty, Bakura, why'd you tell me they do? I recognise them all! They-" She clutched at the front of her robe with a convulsive hand, the joy on her face freezing into something out of place. "They're _hurt_."

One of her eyes, blank and unfocused, shimmered with tears. The other glinted with an incisive gold light.

"You have enough magic, Serethor! The Millennium Eye is obeying you!" Bakura jumping up and grabbed her shoulders. "It was worth it to kill the old priest! We don't need to control him when the Eye suits a daughter of Kul Elna so much better. Wasn't it worth the pain? We'll be unstoppable!"

She stared at him. "Bakura..."

"Yeah, it's me. Do I look very different to how you remember?" He grinned, but Serethor stepped back, bewilderment on her face. Something about the way she moved made his stomach swoop, and the thought crossed his mind that he might be lucky she didn't fear him.

Her face turned to all corners of the room, the motions strange for her in a small but striking way - she'd always turned to aim her ears, not her eyes. One stayed unfocused, of course, but with the Millenium Eye she took in the ramshuckle hut; then she looked again at the patches of shimmering air that showed the ghosts, and began to give small, gasping sobs.

Her eyes hadn't been strong enough to see what had happened on that night, but now ninety-nine ghosts made it clear.

Bakura sat down out of the way again, letting Serethor realise the whole of the truth for her own sake. At last Serethor stopped making those sounds. She turned to him and spoke in a dull voice. "Thank you for giving me sight again."

Her face had red smears over both cheeks, marking where she'd wiped away tears and blood. Bakura smiled, going over to her and putting his arm over her shoulders, tucking her close. She fell into him willingly.

"You look like a warrior now."

"I ... I guess." Serethor wiped ineffectually at the marks, hands scrubbing her cheeks, but Bakura was glad to see how quickly she forced herself to stop. "What..." She paused, swallowed. "What will we do?"

"We'll kill the rest of the priests. Soon."

Serethor made another small, pained noise, but when she looked at the shimmers in the air, she gave the barest nod.


End file.
